Rockets land near Hizbollah stronghold in southern Beirut

Rockets fell near Hizbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut on Sunday morning, hours after the leader of the Lebanese militant group vowed to fight on in Syria “until the end of the road”.

The attack heightens fears that Hizbollah’s growing involvement in the Syrian civil war risks a sectarian backlash in Lebanon.

The Shia group is closely allied with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, while its Sunni opponents in Lebanon support their co-religionists in the rebellion.

The rockets fell in the mostly Shia neighbourhood of Chiyah, just a few minutes’ drive from the Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.

Residents said that one fell in a car dealership at around 7am, shattering the windows of several vehicles on display and injuring four Syrian labourers who were sleeping there.

Another fell in a family home a few hundred metres up the road, covering the reception area in debris. A resident who had been asleep in the next room with his pregnant wife when the rocket struck said that the area had been targeted “because we love Hassan Nasrallah”, a reference to the leader of Hizbollah.

People working near the car dealership said there were few people around when the rocket struck because it was so early, suggesting that the attack was intended to send a message rather than cause significant casualties.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that his group was committed to fighting rebels in Syria, whom he depicted as extremists.

“We will continue to the end of the road, we accept this responsibility and will accept all sacrifices and expected consequences of this position,” said Mr Nasrallah, in his first remarks since a fierce battle for the strategic city of Qusair produced the Shia group’s biggest casualties yet in Syria.

“We will be the ones who bring it victory, God willing,” he added.

Hizbollah is part of a strategic anti-Israel alliance with Damascus and Tehran, but previously, Mr Nasrallah has portrayed Hizbollah’s actions in Syria, where Mr Assad is battling a mainly Sunni rebellion, as motivated by a responsibility to protect Lebanese Shia living in the border areas.

In Saturday’s speech Mr Nasrallah portrayed a wider struggle, saying that Sunni extremists fighting on the rebel side in the border areas threatened not just local Shia but “all the Lebanese people”.

He also said that if Syria fell in to the hands of Sunni extremists, “Israel will enter Lebanon and impose its will”.

“Syria is the back of the resistance, and the resistance cannot stand, arms folded, while its back is broken,” Mr Nasrallah told thousands of supporters via a video link.

Hizbollah’s role in its neighbour’s civil war has been under scrutiny in the past week as its fighters have played a prominent role in the regime effort to retake Qusair from the rebels. One activist group estimates its casualties at more than 30.